Young Lion of the Woods eBook

The Indian, who had not recovered sufficient strength
to endure much excitement or hardship, was in a high
state of feverish bewilderment. The Captain said:
“Paul, what gave you such a fright?” He
replied, “that when he first saw the fish approaching,
he thought that they were a lot of canoes paddled
by evil spirits from the dark, dismal hunting grounds
of thieving and murderous Indians, and that they were
after him to carry him away over the great waters
to live in misery among them, because he had left
the wigwam and forsaken his mother’s grave before
two moons were gone.”

Early next morning Mrs. Godfrey relieved her husband
at the helm; Charlie assisting her. The Captain
went below to rest, asking to be called if anything
out of the ordinary occurred. He had hardly closed
his eyes during the voyage, but fell asleep at his
post during the previous night, when the weather fortunately
was fine and the sea quite peaceful.

At about ten o’clock, a.m., Paul sighted something
in the distance. He called to Mrs. Godfrey to
look in the direction of his hand, which he was pointing
over the port bow. She could see nothing, but
she headed the sloop in the direction that Paul gave,
and in an hour’s time had the satisfaction of
seeing what she supposed to be the outline of rocks
or land. She kept the vessel headed in toward
what she supposed to be land, and at three o’clock
called her husband on deck. The Captain judged
his vessel to be on the east coast of Nova Scotia.

Margaret called her children around her, and asked
Paul to sit down with them. She opened the old
service book and read a portion of scripture.
The deck was made an altar of the living God.
From the deck fervent prayer mingled with the voice
of the ocean and with the sighing wind ascended on
high. Margaret said to Paul: “You and
I were rescued at the gate of death. When our
frail bark was tossing and labouring hard for life
in her lone path over the surging billows and through
the blackness of the night, a kind hand overshadowed
us and kept us, and now not one of the ship’s
company is lost.”

Full of bright hope, she turned to her husband and
said: “I now am satisfied we shall safely
reach port, and once again we and our dear ones shall
see our native lands. English civilization and
English justice will do rightly by us in our misfortunes.
We, who have lost all our possessions,—­in
an hour stripped of all that we owned,—­and
have been compelled to endure hardships and face death
itself in an English colony, may in confidence look
to the old land for succor.”

The next two days the wind continued favourable, and
the little vessel ran along in sight of the coast.

The following day an adverse wind blew and a storm
seemed brewing, but the wind only freshened a bit,
and all day the vessel beat about in sight of land.
Paul, who had now sufficiently recovered, appeared
to take a great interest in everything about the sloop;
the sun shone brightly and the clouds were lifted
high in the heavens. All around was perfect peace.